Written by Elena (edited by Swarajit)
Introduction
The meeting was opened by Club President Glen who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular and new members to our new, shiny and stunning venue, The Clerk & Well pub, which is going to be our permanent home. He described the Toastmasters organisation and the benefits that membership of a club like Bloomsbury Speakers can provide.
The Toastmaster of the meeting was one of our most experienced members and also the Club Secretary Kate. She was assisted by the Grammarian Hari and Timekeeper Sye Yuet who was performing her role for the first time.
Prepared speeches
Guests are always very welcome in our club and we are especially pleased when they become new members and give their introductory speeches.
This evening we had an Ice Breaker speech entitled “Introducing Me” from our new member Carrie. She gave us a descriptive and very humorous view of her life since she was born in Northampton, including her university activities, a year out in Sydney where she gained the most interesting experiences and the last four years since she came back to London to work as a conference producer.
The second speaker was Janet, who presented her No. 2 speech (the main purpose of which is to organise your speech) entitled “The Circle”. She told us about the circle of violence in personal relationships which has three stages: first stage is the honeymoon; the second stage is tension; and the third stage is the explosion.
The third speaker this evening was Ahmed with his speech No. 2 speech entitled “The Mayor of London Election”. He’d chosen a very timely topic and provided to the audience a comprehensive speech about the creation of the Mayor’s role in London, its responsibilities and the forthcoming elections on May 4th.
The last speaker this evening was Jo, who presented her No. 3 speech (the objective of which is to get to the point) entitled “Dad versus Technology”. She organised the speech as a three-round contest between her smart dad and his smart phone. Dad won the first round called “Purchasing”, the second round called “Set-up” was basically a draw, but the smart phone won the third round entitled “Three months later”. As a result, a rematch is needed and so only time will tell who wins: dad or technology!
Speech evaluations
After the break we had the evaluations part of the meeting which related to the Toastmasters Competent Leadership Programme. Regularly providing evaluations for other speakers helps improve your own speaking skills dramatically and provides constructive tips about good practice in delivering speeches.
Joe gave an evaluation of Carrie’s Ice Breaker speech. He commended Carrie’s confidence on the stage, her very visual language and the fact that the audience could see her life as a timeline. The recommendation was that Carrie could insert more drama into the speech.
Swarajit evaluated Janet’s No. 2 speech. He commented that Janet had definitely met the speech objectives and praised her use of a vivid opening, supported by a chronological story and good transitions between the stages. Swarajit recommended that Janet work on improving her body language and voice projection.
Elena evaluated Ahmed’s No. 2 speech. She praised the structure of the speech, his announcement of what the speech would be about in the beginning, the use of statistics, and suggested vocal variety as an area for further improvement for Ahmed.
Nazia gave an evaluation of Jo’s No. 3 speech. She commented that Jo achieved the speech objectives very well by using the innovative technique of constructing her speech as a boxing match-style running commentary, as well as starting with an enthusiastic opening: “Let’s get this contest started!” Nazia would have liked to have seen a stronger conclusion to the speech from Jo.
Table Topics
The Table Topics part of the meeting is where members “think on their feet” and speak for a minute or so about a topic they’ve just been given.
Mike, a very experienced Toastmaster and guest performed as the Topics Master this evening. He chose quite challenging and interesting questions:
- The government has made a new law that bans the job that you are doing now. They have given you the money to re-train and you now have to do a new job that is totally different from what you have done before. What will it be?
- You are on stage on X-Factor and have been granted any special power that you want. What would you do?
- Superman’s role is vacant and you have got the job. What would you like to do in London that would give you immense pleasure and make citizens’ lives happier?
- You could be the queen of any country in Europe. Which country would you choose and why?
- You have been granted superhuman physical power and can apply it to any activity at the Olympic Games and you will win. Which game would that be and why?
- What have you done in your life that, five seconds after you’d done it, you wished you hadn’t?
One member and five new guests took part and were evaluated by the Table Topics evaluator this evening Henry. He commended using the word of the day “pernicious” by participants, real engagement with the audience, laughing and smiling, using repetition and humour. The useful recommendations were: to try to speak a bit longer, make more use of pauses and to be aware of one’s body language.
The General Evaluator for this evening was Khandee, a guest from Harrovian Speakers in Stanmore, who evaluated all the meeting participants that were yet to be evaluated. In the beginning he noted that our new venue was much better than others he’d seen and suggested several useful recommendations like stamping in acknowledgement whenever the audience hears the word of the day.
Awards
Closing the meeting, Glen gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one President’s discretional award.
The Best Evaluator award went to Henry for his brilliant Table Topics evaluation, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to guest Chris for his fantastic performance, and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to a relatively new member Janet for her very touching speech. The President’s discretional award went to Sye Yuet for performing her first ever role – as Timekeeper – so effectively.
The certificate for successfully completing her Icebreaker speech – an important landmark for any Toastmaster– went to Carrie.
Next meeting
Our next meeting is on Monday 30thApril 2012, upstairs at The Clerk and Well Pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.
London contest finals and workshops!
On Saturday 21st there is a full day of workshops plus the Division B finals of the International Speech and Evaluation contests. Find out more and book your ticket here.
